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Grid of 100,000 computers heralds new internet dawn

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:14:00 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The Grid is coming

Clip Source: technology.timesonline.co.uk

A network of 100,000 computers providing the greatest data processing capacity yet unleashed has been created to cope with information pouring from the world’s largest machine.

The Grid is the latest evolution of the internet and the world wide web and computer scientists will announce on Friday that it is ready to be connected to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

It is designed for schemes where huge quantities of data need crunching, such as large research and engineering projects. The Grid has the kind of power required to download movies in seconds, and the ability to make high-definition video phone calls for the same price as a local call. More importantly, it should help to narrow the search for cures for diseases. However, it is unlikely to be directly available to most internet users until telecoms providers build the fibre-optic network required to use it.

Tags: grid, computing, cern

Richard Dawkins- the believer

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:33:37 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.believermag.com

Dawkins has achieved not only recognition but considerable notoriety—the result, it sometimes seems, of having proposed or defended one controversial idea after another. Over the course of his career he has become associated with, and at times served as a spokesperson for, views and positions including sociobiology, biological reductionism, the gene-centered view of evolution, memetics, atheism, and secular humanism. While he is a prominent Darwinist, Dawkins entirely eschews so-called “Social Darwinism.” He is deeply committed to a progressive agenda that aims to decrease violence and oppression and improve the quality of people’s lives, not only by employing the means of science but by encouraging a better understanding of science.

THE BELIEVER: Why do you think it is that in the United States in particular, the level of ignorance about, and resistance to, Darwinian evolution is so high?

Tags: richard dawkins, believer

Human Brain Shifts Into Higher Gear During Exercise

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:37:57 GMT

clipped by: SenorCoconut

Clip Source: www.elements4health.com

According to a study by researchers from Denmark and The Netherlands published in the October 2008 print issue of The FASEB Journal, the brain, just like muscles, works harder during strenuous exercise and is fueled by lactate, rather than glucose. Not only does this finding help explain why the brain is able to work properly when the body's demands for fuel and oxygen are highest, but it goes a step further to show that the brain actually shifts into a higher gear in terms of activity. This opens doors to entirely new areas of brain research related to understanding lactate's specific neurological effects.

To reach their conclusion, the researchers looked at research that compared the blood running to and from the heads of volunteers undergoing strenuous exercise. They found that the blood on its way to the brain contained considerably more lactate than blood flowing from the brain.

Tags: brain, lactate, glucose, neurological effects

NYT: Concerns rise about Palin's readiness

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:07:37 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Some leading conservatives publicly turn against her: "She's out of her league." Couric interview, though kindly done, raises red flags; sets an image she may not be able to overcome

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

By Adam Nagourney

she heads into a critical debate facing challenges from conservatives about her credentials, signs that her popularity is slipping and evidence that Republicans are worried

“I think she has pretty thoroughly — and probably irretrievably — proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States,” David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush

“And this is a moment of real high anxiety, a little bit like 9/11, when people look to Washington for comfort and leadership and want to know that people in charge know what they are doing.”

A number of conservative columnists and thinkers have publicly turned against her, or criticized Mr. McCain for choosing her, including George Will, David Brooks and Kathleen Parker, who wrote a column entitled “She’s Out of Her League” for the National Review Online.

“And Dan Quayle never in his life has performed as badly as Sarah Palin in the last month.”

Tags: palin, politics, mccain

BURUNDI: Francine Nijimbere: "My husband cut off my arms for having a girl"

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:31:23 GMT

clipped by: lifecyce1898

Clip Source: www.irinnews.org

Francine Nijimbere at the association for the protection of women's rights, ADDF

BUJUMBURA, 25 February 2008 (IRIN) - Francine Nijimbere relies entirely on her mother for basic things like bathing and eating. Her husband cut off her arms up to the elbows in 2004, for failing to give birth to a boy. She was pregnant at the time and lost the baby due to her injuries, which included cuts on her stomach. The man - a soldier - was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison but was recently released following a presidential pardon.

After her arms were cut off, Nijimbere left for Burundi's southern province of Makamba with her daughter, now four, where she lived with her mother. She is now living in fear following her husband's release and has sought refuge with ADDF, an association based in Bujumbura, dealing with the protection of women's rights. She spoke to IRIN on 22 February:

Not Only Surviving The Storm . . .

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:35:46 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: my.opera.com

He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now. I was surprised, and asked him, "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?". He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is...".

True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain!

Palin believes dinosaurs and men once coexisted

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:56:27 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

Palin believes dinosaurs and men once coexisted

Palin told him that "dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time," Munger said. When he asked her about prehistoric fossils and tracks dating back millions of years, Palin said "she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks," recalled Munger, who teaches music at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and has regularly criticized Palin in recent years on his liberal political blog, called Progressive Alaska.

Tags: palin, republicans, vp nominee, dinsaurs, religon